ERRORS IN PRAYER. 3Q7 usefulness ; it may he the prayer of co- vetousness, under the pretext of provid- ing for your family. It may be the prayer of injustice, a petition for success in some undertaking for yourself, to the circumvention of another's fairer claim. God, in mercy to our souls, refuses the gift which would endanger them. Thus, then, if we ask and receive not, because we ask deceitfully or blindly, we must not wonder if our prayers are not answered. Or, if we obtain what we so- licit, and turn it to a bad account, or to no account at all, we must not be sur- prised if Divine grace is withheld, or withdrawn. The same ill results may be expected if we ask formally or carelessly. Who has not felt, that there is a kind of me- chanical memory in the tongue, which runs over the form, without any aid of the understanding, without any concur- rence of the will, without any consent of the affections ? For do we not sometimes implore God to hear a prayer, to which
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